Paramount Press Books (1918)

Cast and Story of “The Marriage Ring” For Use of Exhibitors in Their House Organs or For General Publicity A Paramount Picture. “THE MARRIAGE RING”, TENSE STORY OF LIFE AND LOVE IN SAN FRANCISCO AND HAWAII New Ince— Paramount Photoplay Starring Enid Bennett Filled With Stirring Incidents. “THE MARRIAGE RING.” THE CAST: Anne Mertons Enid Bennett Rodney Heathe, a Sugar Planter Jack Holt Hugo Mertons, Anne’s Husband. .Robert McKim Aho, a Hawaiian Girl Maude George Koske, a Hun Spy Agent Charles K. French Mrs. Heathe, Rodney’s Mother Lydia Knott THE STORY |~A ELICATELY reared, and a woman of refinement, Anne Mertons, wife of Hugo Mertons, a gambler and all-round crook, is tiring of her shameful existence, that of being a tool in the hands of her rascally husband who employs her to aid in fleecing his victims at cards or by any other means that may present themselves. Mertons has made up his mind to go to Honolulu in search of his fortune and to that end he invites a man from Hawaii to his apartment in San Francisco, his purpose being to have Anne fleece him of the funds necessary to defray the expenses of their voyage. Recalling her past life, Anne is filled with remorse and she resolves to reform. When the visitor arrives, he finds Anne weeping and consoles her. The visitor and Mertons are soon engaged at a game of cards and presently Mertons is caught cheating clumsily. The visitor leaves the place angrily, tells his story to the apartment clerk and the Mertons are ordered to vacate immediately. Mertons, who is now practically penniless, tells his wife that she will have to find some fool with money, even though she ply her traffic in the streets. She resents this and Mertons threatens her with a revolver. She seizes the weapon and in the struggle that ensues, it is discharged and Mertons falls apparently killed. As a band in a neighboring park plays a lively air, Anne gathers her money and valuables, then creeps out of the house by a rear door and makes her escape unobserved. She hastens to the wharves and finding a steamship bound for Honolulu just casting off, she goes aboard. Among the passengers Anne meets Rodney Heathe, a wealthy sugar planter, who is returning to Honolulu with his mother. Heathe falls in love with her, and presently Anne realizes that she has found her first great love. She accepts Mrs. Heathe’s invitation to live with her on the Heathe plantation and for a prolonged period she is happy, though now and again her thoughts revert to the shooting of her husband. Her belief that Mertons is dead is erroneous for he had been only slightly wounded and failing to locate his wife, had made his way to Honolulu and, one day, he is amazed to discover her driving with Heathe. Mertons is the tool of Koske, a German spy who has been commissioned by Berlin to burn the cane fields of Hawaii. He hopes to accomplish this with the aid of Mertons and Aho, a Hawaiian girl who' loves Mertons. On the night when the cane fields are to be fired, Mertons seeks Anne at the Heathe plantation and before she recovers from her terror at the sight of him, he brutally orders her to accompany him. She writes a note to Heathe bidding him farewell. Resigned to her evil fate, she accompanies him to Aho’s hut, thereby rousing the latter’s fierce jealousy. Koske reaches the hut and Anne overhears him tell Mertons that all is in readiness to fire the cane fields and thus deal a fatal Hun blow against the United States. As Mertons and Koske start away on their mission, their intention being to fire the Heathe plantation first, Anne literally burrows her way through the thatched hut and summoning the natives, she leaps on a horse and rides for the Heathe plantation. A flare on the horizon tells her that the fire already has been started and with the aid of the natives, she puts out the flames that threaten the Heathe fields with destruction. Meanwhile, Heathe responds to the alarm and finds Anne half suffocated. He is caring for her when Mertons, half blinded and burned when a shift of the wind turns the flames upon him, bursts upon them in an out-house where they have found refuge. Mertons staggers with an oath toward Anne and falls dead as Heathe takes Anne into his arms.